This movie was just plain weird. I really went in wanting to like it, but the whole pretentious, overly poetic vibe, combined with this choppy editing that keeps hopping back and forth in these tiny five to ten second bursts, just made it feel dragged out for no real reason, way too self indulgent if you ask me. Honestly this could've been trimmed down to a fifteen minute short and lost nothing. And I still don't get what the deal was with women dancing along the beach while some overwrought, flowery narration plays over the top. The plot creeps along at a snail's pace, slowly building toward some confrontation that you can see coming from a mile away and that just gets duller the closer it gets. By the time it actually happened I'd totally checked out as a viewer, even with two genuinely good looking guys leading the film. The setup itself is pretty basic. Lorena and Diego are trying to settle into a new life in a small town by the coast, both nervously starting fresh ...
The plot kicks off with a nameless guy leaving his house to set up camp out in the desert, seemingly haunted by thoughts of his former partner. After getting ambushed during the night by some unseen force, a guy and a woman rescue him and take care of his injuries. The problem is, their farm feels like it exists totally outside the normal flow of time. It becomes obvious right away that both hosts are into the newcomer, though her behavior shifts back and forth between flirty and outright creepy. At the same time, a mutual pull develops between the two guys, but the woman holds all the power and gets super angry as she notices her gentle partner falling for the helpless visitor. The stranger ends up having passionate encounters with both of them on separate occasions, but as things wrap up, the local guy helps him break free. The traveler begs him to escape this bizarre setup together, but he says no and ends up getting murdered in the end.
I can give props to the team behind it, since the main two actors actually produced and directed it themselves, for trying to break away from the usual tropes of queer cinema, but they pushed things so far in the opposite direction that I completely tuned out. You definitely feel a heavy pulse of lust driving the narrative, but that's pretty much all it has going for it. The sparse lines we do get feel totally basic, meaning the narrative relies on quiet moments and flashy camera tricks to move forward. They do manage to build a strange, uneasy dynamic among the main trio that shows up in different ways, but I kept asking myself what the purpose was. Marketing this as a gay romance feels pretty dishonest to me because there isn't any setup or room for that bond to grow. The guys share a single physical encounter, but there's no real sign of actual love beyond one quick line in the traveler's journal mentioning how the guy reminds him of his past lover. You shouldn't expect a standard romance between two guys here, since what they feel has this distant, almost impossible feel that actually gives their brief moments together more weight. On the flip side, the spooky thriller bits really flop, and the resolution leaves you hanging with way too many questions. I couldn't tell if the host guy was actually the traveler's old flame or if his former partner got bumped off by this same duo earlier. The three actors pull off solid performances, and the two male leads are undeniably gorgeous with incredible bodies and chiseled features, but staring at pretty people only takes you so far. Calling this movie weird is the easiest way to sum it up, and it completely loses its way early on, while its intentional emotional distance puts you on the back foot right away, making it a total chore to sit through its painfully long 85 minutes.
It is just a bizarre mess that completely loses its train of thought, leaving you with a totally confusing experience that isn't worth your time. (3/10)
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